Hike Vitals
Miles hiked to date: 2100
Miles to go: 900
Days since hike started: 84
Location: Lima, Montana
Showers: 11

Fundraising Update
Our fundraising progress has slowed a bit, but we have raised more than double our initial goal (pledge commitments are over $30,000). We will continue publicizing our efforts by talking to media outlets and organizing presentations (after we finish) with the goal of educating people on how important, easy, and painless it is to register as a potential bone marrow donor.

Trek Update
Welcome to our final on-trail post! Although days sometimes pass slowly, the journey has passed quickly. With continued good fortune, we will reach the Canadian border in just over a month, and hopefully our next email will be shortly after we relegate our hiking shoes to a comfortable retirement.

Since our last post, we've experienced both the drudgery and triumphs of the trail. The Great Basin was a low point: a sagebrush desert of dusty roads, little water and no shade. We drank from cattle ponds and didn't see a tree for more than 100 miles. As we sweated along the seemingly endless jeep tracks, we seriously (and sometimes profanely) questioned our sanity.

Fortunately, the Great Basin was immediately followed by the Wind River mountains - a fairy tale playground of forested trails, dramatic granite peaks, and alpine lake basins. We lowered our daily mileages to provide time for swims in the lakes, lunch-time naps, and off-trail adventures. It was an ideal tonic for our worn nerves.

Jon Zalisk (who hiked with us previously in the snowy San Juans of Colorado) again joined us in the Wind Rivers, bringing fresh perspectives and a chance to catch up with the outside world. We were then joined for a very memorable Fourth of July by Damien (San Francisco), Mo (Boston), Trude and Jilka (Los Angeles). Many heartfelt thanks to all of them for making our Fourth more fun than we ever expected.

We sobered up on our way to Yellowstone, where we enjoyed private performances by the many back country geysers and hot springs. About 75% of the seventy miles of trail in Yellowstone traversed land that had been scorched during the massive Yellowstone fires of 1988. It was interesting to see signs of nature's gradual recovery: nearly twenty years later young trees are just beginning to fill the vast voids. It may take a century before Yellowstone returns to the way it was.

We walked out of Wyoming onto the Montana/Idaho border - a boundary that is officially defined by the Continental Divide. In addition to continued wonderful weather, Montana/Idaho welcomed us with a new nemesis: biting flies. We eat breakfast and lunch in big gulps so we can hurry back to the trail -- movement seems to be the most effective repellent.

Gail (Jim's mom) provided some welcome shelter from the flies with a midweek visit from Colorado. She fattened us up with an assortment of meats, breads, cookies and chocolate milk. We hope the added heft will help keep our shorts up.

As we continue northward, we look forward to experiencing the more rugged, glaciated topography of Montana's northern wildernesses. In the next week or so, we will also begin to meet the first southbound thru-hikers -- the folks that started the Continental Divide Trail in Canada in late May and early June. Their adventure will be in the early chapters while ours will be nearing its conclusion.